Guest 05.31

Oh sorry, should have realised you don't know how to click links yet:

Dick Gaughan wrote:

"The Golden Rule of Usenet is to remember at all times that the person on the other side of your monitor screen is a human being.

Do not say anything to anyone on a newsgroup that you would be afraid to say directly to their face if they were a 6'6 240lbs ex-professional heavyweight boxer carrying a baseball bat and accompanied by three unmuzzled Rottweilers and a posse of very short-tempered bikers. You never know, they might be - and they might live just round the corner from you. Get the idea? So be as courteous and polite as the circumstances call for.

Be aware that your anonymity is not quite as secure as you might think it is.

On Usenet you can run - but you can't hide. If you post to newsgroups, anyone with a bit of technical clue can normally discover your identity - and quite a lot about you - without too much difficulty. Many naive unsuspecting souls have amused themselves by being offensive and foul-mouthed on newsgroups, posting using a throwaway mail address on something like Hotmail, feeling secure in the knowledge that nobody could know their identity and so nobody could seek retribution - only to be completely dumbfounded and quite shocked when retribution knocked at their front door.

Also be aware that your words of wisdom are archived in several places and can be accessed and read by anyone at any time, even several years later. So do not post anything to a newsgroup you would not wish to see spraypainted on a wall in the main street of your home town. Any words posted to a newsgroup can come back to haunt you at any time."

Take them to heart. Just a suggestion.